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Is Cakewalk gaining users/popularity with Bandlab?


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I think it is just the instruments that are missing to move Cakewalk up the popularity ladder a bit. In my view they should be given priority next. When I read the Cakewalk splash page, I agree with most of what is on there, there is a lot to like but then there is this:

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A World of Instruments

Whether you’re a songwriter, producer, or composer, Cakewalk by BandLab has the instruments you need to build your production from the ground up.

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It does have instruments but I would regard them as basic, it doesn't have a Kontakt like Instrument player, Cubase has Halion, Studio One the Presence instrument etc

A DAW needs it's own instrument player/sampler. I think in Sonar that was Dimension Pro? That also really adds a lot to the marketing side as well. People know then if they get the DAW they can make good sounds. The current instruments don't look very modern and are limited. If I didn't already have Komplete Ultimate, I probably wouldn't and in fact couldn't, make Cakewalk my primary DAW.

I have 9 DAW's on my computer at the moment, just looking at them before upgrading the computer. Before I was using Studio One primarily but I am now using Cakewalk and migrating some projects over to it. I now am becoming more familiar with it and do everything in it. I like the interface much more than the other DAW's.

It's a size thing, everything in Cakewalk is easier to see, the big EQ slideout and the Prochannel stuff and the piano roll etc, I could go on but the aim of the thread is whether Cakewalk is gaining popularity with Bandlab users. I don't know about that but in terms of popularity with other DAW users I think that just adding an instrument player of some kind would be a good start.

Then everything advertised on the splash page would be correct and then you would also have even more features to market on that splash page.

I think that the idea people are not using the product because of bugs/instability is absolute rubbish, I don't find it any different to other DAW's, they all run stably on my system and they all have little quirks here or there.

I don't like the frequent updates though, this seems to be something unique to Sonar users, who expect one a month and think that is a good thing. I think it's a terrible idea. It seems sometimes these updates break things and another comes out just as quickly to correct it. Other DAW's you get 1 every 3 to 6 months or so. I prefer that. Perhaps there is a Beta testing section needed in the forum somewhere either visible to the public or only to logged in members where these updates can be tested more widely by some users before release.

 

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9 hours ago, SomeGuy said:

The one that grabs them in a certain market tends to be the one they stick with

This is very true for new users.

There was a point in time from the late 90s to 2005 or so where many old school analog users (probably like you and I) were clutching our tape machines resisting the digital realm. Others were simply curious.

Then something else happened around this same time, we were introduced to a DAW by a friend, maybe we saw someone use one and it grabbed our attention. A lot can be said for being introduced to a DAW and it being your first DAW. you begin to feel so invested, that moving to another DAW feels like walking backwards (in terms of learning new features, keyboard shortcuts). That's the case for me anyway.

Unless Cakewalk rolls out some type of Lego Lanes which totally loses my interest, I'll keep using it because of only 2 things

1- It does what I want it to.

2- I don't have to learn anything new (which lets me focus on the important stuff like the music).

 

 

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8 hours ago, Tezza said:

I don't like the frequent updates though, this seems to be something unique to Sonar users, who expect one a month and think that is a good thing. I think it's a terrible idea. It seems sometimes these updates break things and another comes out just as quickly to correct it. Other DAW's you get 1 every 3 to 6 months or so. I prefer that.

It seems to me that Cakewalk development has stepped into the slower lane. I am showing my installed version as current at 2019-03, and it is already May. So that was only the 2nd one this year, following 2019.01.

Cakewalk by BandLab Release Notes:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1aFOe_zJrd3x2EnaZ_Jc3iSbZPG2WANiCD4_RP83OjlA/edit

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22 minutes ago, abacab said:

It seems to me that Cakewalk development has stepped into the slower lane. I am showing my installed version as current at 2019-03, and it is already May. So that was only the 2nd one this year, following 2019.01.

Cakewalk by BandLab Release Notes:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1aFOe_zJrd3x2EnaZ_Jc3iSbZPG2WANiCD4_RP83OjlA/edit

I suspect they're just working on bigger stuff. 

Also the NAMM show no doubt put a dent in the schedule, and the Melodyne & Plugin settings reset issues have probably got priority at the moment.

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1 hour ago, Feral State Sound said:

What are you referring to?

Quote

It seems to me that Cakewalk development has stepped into the slower lane. I am showing my installed version as current at 2019-03, and it is already May. So that was only the 2nd one this year, following 2019.01.

 

Edited by garybrun
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I don't like the frequent updates though, this seems to be something unique to Sonar users, who expect one a month and think that is a good thing

If you were a SONAR user before the "Great Panic of 2017" you got used to this schedule for a few years. I think it's great the Noel & Co. still do updates on what seems a more quarterly basis, but I do like monthly updates for bug fixes etc. vs. feature updates. I'd rather have stability vs. a bunch of features I may or may not use.

As for the program's popularity. Who really cares? It works, it's still here, it doesn't look to be going away anytime soon. This is great news for my work (commercials and post production) since we have almost 16 years of projects on back-up. If we did have to switch DAWS it would have been a major problem because we often have to go to projects from several years ago.

 

 

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3 hours ago, msmcleod said:

I suspect they're just working on bigger stuff. 

Also the NAMM show no doubt put a dent in the schedule, and the Melodyne & Plugin settings reset issues have probably got priority at the moment.

I wasn't complaining. I actually PREFER the slower pace of releases. I hope they keep it up. I would rather that they get released when they are fully baked. :D

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16 minutes ago, emwhy said:

As for the program's popularity. Who really cares? It works, it's still here, it doesn't look to be going away anytime soon. This is great news for my work (commercials and post production) since we have almost 16 years of projects on back-up. If we did have to switch DAWS it would have been a major problem because we often have to go to projects from several years ago.

 

That's where AAF import/export would be a nice feature to have!

What is the difference between the OMF and AAF formats? Why do I want to use one vs. the other?

http://avid.force.com/pkb/articles/en_US/FAQ/en331113

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On 4/4/2019 at 2:59 PM, Craig Anderton said:

2. Making it easier to get started. Currently, the irony is you need to know  a lot about the program in order to take advantage of the features that simplify it.

Bingo!  The instructional YouTube videos created by Bandlab, ChernobylStudios and some other creators are great.  But there are so many of them.  Who has time to churn through all of them?

The Cakewalk by Bandlab Reference Manual is wonderful but asking anyone to become familiar with 2,184 pages is a reach.

I find the program to be very intimidating.  Simple editing tasks like highlight, cut, copy, delete, paste and move that are intuitive and easy to perform in other programs like Audacity are not listed in the menu and do not follow keystroke combinations used in any other program that I know of.

The Control Bar defaults enable too much stuff.

I would love for the developers, a very knowledgeable user, or third party like Groove3 create templates with lenses that focus on performing specific tasks.  Tasks I would like to see include:  Installing an audio interface, installing a MIDI interface, using the built-in audio features on a laptop (microphone, headphones, USB mic, USB headphone).  The next step is recording audio, recording MIDI and playback.  Then there is importing files and creating projects.  Next is editing, then adding effects, then using groove clips.  In other words, baby steps.  Don't assume anything.  Use lenses and screensets to create demo project templates where the Control Bar and screens have only what is needed to perform each task displayed.

There are a lot of people interested in creating music, recording and audio production that DO NOT KNOW how to get started.  Cakewalk by Bandlab needs to be the Windows product everyone first thinks of when the subject of computer recording is brought up.  The product is feature rich enough that it can grow  as a user progresses.

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It's extremely difficult to dumb down any complex bit of software. Any feature rich application is going come with a learning curve.

Lenses do go some way to mitigate this. I did at one point suggest that the installer ask you what level you're at so it could automatically apply the default lens accordingly... however you can bet that there would be a bunch of haters out there complaining that you can't do this, that, and the other just because the lens has hidden it and they didn't know that.

To be honest, I don't see Cakewalk being any more complicated than ProTools, Cubase or Studio One. There's probably more ProTools videos out there than anything else, and I don't think Cakewalk is that much different to use. The last time I used ProTools, I pretty much hit the ground running (and that was before the YouTube explosion on tutorials). It was certainly closer to Cakewalk than Cubase... mind you I was still using SONAR 8.5 at the time.

I find the CakeTV videos to be not much more than a taster, mainly for marketing, although the BandLab ones I think are enough to at least get you recording something.

The  ChernobylStudios tutorials are straight and to the point. They don't go into a huge amount of detail, but cover the important stuff. I would say they're the best to get your started.

The StreamworksAudio ones are more comprehensive, but obviously a bit longer.

The Groove3 "SONAR Explained" videos are by far the most comprehensive, but at five and half hours long it's a lot to take in. I managed it over two weeks of lunch hours in the office. I would add though, having used SONAR for over 20 years, I thought I knew it pretty well. I probably only knew 20%  until I watched the Groove3 videos. It's well worth the time and investment.

 

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43 minutes ago, fogle622 said:

2. Making it easier to get started. Currently, the irony is you need to know  a lot about the program in order to take advantage of the features that simplify it. 

I could not agree with this more. However...

44 minutes ago, fogle622 said:

Simple editing tasks like highlight, cut, copy, delete, paste and move that are intuitive and easy to perform in other programs like Audacity are not listed in the menu and do not follow keystroke combinations used in any other program that I know of.

Highlight: Click-Drag

Cut: Cntrl-x

Copy: Cntrl-c (Copy special: Cntrl-Alt-c)

Delete: Highlight-Delete (or cut)

Paste: Cntrl-v (Paste Special: Cntrl-Alt-v)

Move: Highlight-Click-Drag

These key combinations are common to practically all Windows applications and are  listed in the edit menu. I have never used Audacity but if it has different edit commands than the above then it is the one not following Windows standards.

 

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msmcleod,

I agree there are some good tutorial videos out there.  There are just so many and, for a beginner, how do they separate the good from the so-so?  As you mentioned, there is only so much time.  I don't know if YouTube has a way to boost search results  but I suspect there is.  It would be nice if the Bandlab and ChernobylStudios video series popped up at the top of any search list when the terms daw or recording are used.

Base 57, I stand corrected about my examples.  Thank you for pointing out my errors.  Sometimes my zesl to make a point gets in the way of my thinking!

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14 minutes ago, Craig Anderton said:

To get back to the OP...something that's free, and good, will probably not become less popular over time :)

Lets hope so Craig.   I think Bandlab has a good idea and I hope Meng has the capital to see this through for us Cakewalk fans/users  :)

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